2278-6236 the Tales of Legislature's Independence and Menace of Political Interference

International Journal of Advanced Research in ISSN: 2278-6236 Management and Social Sciences Impact Factor: 7.065 THE TALES OF LEGISLATURE’S INDEPENDENCE AND MENACE OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE: A CRITIQUE OF THE ENUGU STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY HYGINUS BANKO OKIBE-Department of political science, Faculty of the social sciences Enugu state university of science & technology ABSTRACT The Legislature is a creation of law, and an important arm of government that has exclusive power for lawmaking and oversight over government activities in any political community. Because of the strategic importance of legislature, constitution provides for its independence through separation of powers among the organs of government. However, in most post- colonial states, incidences of political interference and executive meddling roles have continued to challenge the independence of the legislature. This interference has continued to affect the performance of statutory roles of the legislature, especially in the area of oversight over executive activities. The enormity of the problem necessitates the study which major aim is to ascertain how the menace of political interference erodes the independence of the legislature and thereby influence the performance of its functions. The study applies documentary method for data generation, content analysis for discussion of thematic issues and post-colonial state theory as the theoretical framework. The findings show clusters of indicators that affect the independence of the legislature. Among the key components, include the nature of political party organization, the electoral process, the emergent value orientation, and elite class mentality; nature of political economy, which creates a symbol of godfather or moneybags syndrome and the prevalent docility to revolutionize the ugly trends. Based on the findings, it recommends reversal of the current political culture, adherence to the principles of constitutional democracy, separation of powers, internal party democracy, and abolition of politics of godfathers or moneybags. KEYWORDS: Legislature, Independence, Political Interference, Critique and State House of Assembly INTRODUCTION The legislature is one of the important arms of government, apart from the executive and judiciary (Thomas, 2004). In other words, the legislative branch is one of the three divisions Vol. 6 | No. 6 | June 2017 www.garph.co.uk IJARMSS | 48 International Journal of Advanced Research in ISSN: 2278-6236 Management and Social Sciences Impact Factor: 7.065 of government and works in conjunction with the executive and judicial branches. Its main responsibility is the creation of laws (Kotlik, 2017).The roles of legislature are diverse and derive from the system of government in practice. There is a seeming agreement that there are three functions common to parliaments in democracies, namely, representation, lawmaking, and oversight (Johnson, 2005). In performing these three key functions, parliaments or legislatures represent the diversity of individuals and groups in society, and promote good governance, (Erunke & Uchem, 2012). The basic reason is that legislature: As the supreme lawmaking institution in a nation, make the rules by which society is governed and they are designed to oversee executive spending and performance. How successfully, they carry out these functions varies dramatically, and for a number of reasons (Johnson, 2005). Although scholars readily discuss lawmaking and representation roles of the legislature, the oversight functions started to evolve lately despite that it is a constitutional provision, perhaps because executive branch see oversight as the most nauseating roles of legislature, which it often attempts to undermine and snub. This assumption is intensely debated but it is already an established fact that, In nearly all democracies, leaders of the executive branch (i.e., presidents, prime ministers, cabinet ministers) typically command much of the political power, control the financial resources, possess staff dedicated to developing policies and implementing laws, produce the bulk of legislation, and manage government contracts and administer government programs (Johnson, 2005). The domestic political culture in each political system determines how the executive posturing regards, treats and absorbs legislature into the mainstream of democratic governance. In most developing political systems, there is always a tendency to consign legislative institution to deplorable domain and thereby neglects the strategic roles it plays in governance and most importantly, in oversight functions over executive activities. Thus, Vol. 6 | No. 6 | June 2017 www.garph.co.uk IJARMSS | 49 International Journal of Advanced Research in ISSN: 2278-6236 Management and Social Sciences Impact Factor: 7.065 the phenomenon of executive domineering influence attests to the problems associated with concentration of government powers in any branch of government. In this instance, there appears to be a consensus among proponents of constitutional democracy that of the three organs of the government, the place of primacy belongs to the legislature. They argue that the function of government begins by lawmaking and is followed-up by law- enforcement and adjudication functions. As such, the legislature is the first organ of the government (Remington, Thomas, 2004), and should occupy strategic position in every democratic government. However, while lawmaking and representation may have fared better in many political systems, executive overwhelming powers and manipulative intrigues tend to overshadow and emasculate the oversight powers of legislature. It partly explains the fact that oversight places torchlight on the spending of public funds, and no executive personnel easily acquiesces to such watchdog role. Remarkably, the legislative role in budgeting evolved over centuries in most advanced democracies in Europe and America. In England, for instance, the ascendancy of the legislature as a political and fiscal institution was integral to the shift from a monarchy to a democracy, (Posner and Park, 2007). Most importantly, democracy emphasizes popular participation and reflects the ideas of government, which according to Hobbes, Locke and Aristotle “recognizes the primacy of accountability in policy implementation and where government governed according to the will of the citizens”, (Perry, et-al, 1995). It implies that legislature should operate in an atmosphere of freedom without any forms of political interference. In consonance, this paper therefore, examines the conditions under which legislature or parliament performs its statutory functions. The core objective of the study is to ascertain whether legislature suffers from political interference by the executive or any external factors, the implications on its independence and roles relating to oversight over policy implementation to enforce executive accountability. Vol. 6 | No. 6 | June 2017 www.garph.co.uk IJARMSS | 50 International Journal of Advanced Research in ISSN: 2278-6236 Management and Social Sciences Impact Factor: 7.065 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The study adopts post-colonial state theory as theoretical framework. The theory assumes that the forms of administrative system, attitudes and government’s domineering tendency, with which the regimes of colonial masters contaminated colonial territories, transplanted into the post-colonial states. Young (2001:74-112) draws three perspectives in which postcolonial theory emerges, namely humanitarian (moral), liberal (political) and economic. Whereas humanitarians and economists staged anti-colonial campaigns, politicians (liberals) supported colonisation as a means of civilising the heathens by any and all means, including force. Ever since the development, theorists such as Ashcroft et al (1989:1-4), Slemon (1995:45-52), Young (1996:67-68; 2001:1-10) and Moore (2001:182-188) have tried to address this issue. Much later, Crawford (2012) combined a wide-ranging research basis and a theoretical foundation to provide contemporary scholarship of the African political economy. In that context, and looking at colonial system, the first contention to clarify is the notion that the kinds of inequity and injustice, exclusion and oppression found in post- colonial societies are simply explicable in terms of class, (Ashcroft, et al, (2000, 2007). To provide a better insight, Nwoke and Omoweh, (2006) note that, “the central theme of the theoretical framework is that the state is an instrument of class domination and its apparatuses are the instruments for primitive accumulation of capital by the same dominant class”. The class structure in Nigerian state cut across the arms of government (Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary). Besides being independent, in terms of functions, they perform in a political system, their organizational structure and functions inter lock their interests in unending search for power and economic resources, in which state administration becomes the epic entre of wars of supremacy. Expectedly, the struggles that characterized primitive accumulation in colonial states, and percolated through post-colonial political practices, overly refreshes the inevitable tradition of subjugation, hegemony, marginalization and penchant for monopolistic control of every government apparatuses in post-colonial states. Therefore, the predominant manifestations of colonial abhorred policies in the government of African independent states, thereupon, speedily imploded the administration

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